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After many hours, possibly days, surfing the Internet for crochet braids and subsequently going crochet braids pin crazy I decided it was time to give it a try.

Using Aftress bulk wave hair in F4/27 and T27 shades and Futura Cherish in DE27 (I use the darker shades underneath and lighter on top), crochet hook in hand I was ready to go. It's been a love hate experience and I'm undecided if I'll go there again. Here are my thoughts...

All about the base...

Pros

1. It didn't take as long as I thought it was going to. Once the base is done, the crocheting itself is pretty fast once you get into the swing of it. And you quickly realise that the underneath doesn't need to be as thorough if you're using curly hair like I did. The curls conceal a lot! As you can see from the photos above my base is quite simple. I did 12 cornrows going straight back on top, and then I did a spiral cornrow at the back. I then used a weave needle and thread to sew any tail ends down.

2. It looks natural. I've had it in over a week now and no one has asked me what I've done to my hair. Hell, all but one person at work has even noticed it's any different at all!

3. It's cheap. This cost me £14.97 for the hair (3 packs in total) and the crochet hook which is worth about £1 was given to me for free by the hair shop anyway!

The hair brands and colours I used...

4. It may look like Afro hair, but when it rains this hair does not shrink!

5. It's the perfect opportunity to experiment with colour without dying your hair, as I have done here.

Cons

2. It takes a few days to settle. When I first did my crochet braids, they looked 'wiggy'. They didn't lay right. I looked like I'd had a facelift because of the tight cornrows beneath too. It took about a week for it to feel like mine.

3. Windy days are a no-no. But only if you're lazy like me. I really should have done tiny invisible part crochet braids all over instead of just at my parting because when the wind blows, the full scale of my laziness is revealed!

4. You can't tie it up high. Well, you could if the crochet braids underneath were a little neater (see previous point) but then that would have took a lot longer.